[ RadSafe ] Cancer Genesis

[JPreisig at aol.com]

Dear Radsafe:
 
     Here is one model of cancer creation.  It was  asked on Radsafe if 
cancer cells form from normal human cells or is some other  process involved.   
Other processes might be teleportation of cancer  cells into the body or 
perhaps generation of these special (cancer) cells by the  body as a response 
to some carcinogen.
 
    For the moment I will assume that cancer cells are  created from normal 
human cells in the presence of some carcinogen.   If this is not the case, 
then the model I present fails.
 
   A normal human cell in a pristine or normal environment has  water and 
oxygen and other nutrients present for growth.  The cell grows at  a normal 
rate and is pretty happy.
 
   If such a normal cell finds itself in a surrounding  environment with 
carcinogens present (at some percentage normal watery  environment versus 
carcinogen environment) then matters change.  Some  structural or chemical or 
whatever process has caused carcinogen concentration  to be something well 
beyond normal.  Let's say the cell is awash in a high  concentration of 
carcinogen.  How does the cell respond to this???   The cell's programming is 
stored in its DNA, perhaps.
 
     Since the cell is now awash in some carcinogen, it  will have a hard 
time finding sufficient nutrients, oxygen etc. for  growth.  The degree of 
response by the cell may depend on the concentration  of the carcinogen.  The 
normal cell is now in a stressed situation.   If it cannot get enough 
nutrients it will die or be damaged..  Perhaps one  response of the normal cell is 
to grow its cell walls quickly in order to  get  more and proper nutrients. 
 Sound like rapid cancer growth,  doesn't it???  Another response by the 
cell is to cycle nutrients (by  diffusion, osmosis etc.) more quickly, thus 
incorporating more carcinogen into  the cell.  Not good.  One could envision 
other similar processes as  exposure to the carcinogen continues.
 
     As the cell continues to try to respond to the  carcinogen, one could 
envision a fair number of scenarios by which the  carcinogen incorporation 
process proceeds.  Cell nuclear matter could be  damaged.  The cell could try 
to reproduce by cellular fission, and thus  more cells responding to the 
carcinogen are produced.
Some of the normal cells start to die.  Again sounds like  cancer.
 
    I am not a biologist either, but I did well in the  course I took on 
Radiation Biophysics.  Thank You, Alan Appleby of Rutgers  University.  This 
email is just a brief answer to the question posed on  Radsafe.  Systems 
Engineering, Kalman Filtering etc. might be used to  describe the actual cancer 
production process.  The devil is in the details  I guess.  I could go on 
further about all this but it is early in the day  and no one is paying me to 
do all this right now.  Eric Hall's book on  Radiation Biology/Biophysics is 
a good source of information, even if I don't  have a recent edition.
 
     You all have a good week at work or at home.
 
     Joe Preisig